


Five Times Henry Healed Regina's Heart

by desperationandgin



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-04
Updated: 2013-04-04
Packaged: 2017-12-07 10:56:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/747733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desperationandgin/pseuds/desperationandgin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five moments in Regina's life after adopting Henry that helped keep her heart from darkening completely.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Times Henry Healed Regina's Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Regina, despite how she’s portrayed on the show, and despite how Henry sees her now, wanted to be a mother. She had ten years without that book and without anyone doubting her. I feel like people assume she's the Evil Queen first and then a mother, but I don't. So, this ficlet was created. Short and sweet and fluffy.

I.

She looks down at him, this still impossibly small child, and feels so utterly relieved that he’s simply stopped crying. For two days now, all that her new son has done is cry, which has made her seriously reconsider her decision. This isn’t the part she had in mind once she’d set her sights on adoption. But now, as Henry simply blinks up at her, hand coming to rest on her chest, Regina lets herself exhale slowly. They lock eyes and she holds her breath, watching him as his mouth opens in a small ‘o,’ trying to puzzle her out.

“We’re going to be just fine, you and I,” she whispers, bending to kiss the top of his head. She’s rewarded with a light coo, and her heart tugs in her chest.  
  
II.

Regina hears her son’s crying from the side walk, and it makes her quicken her pace. Leaving him with Granny was a terrible idea. A horrible idea, even if she desperately needed the sleep. Once the door to the diner is opened, the magnitude of Henry’s cries hits her full tilt, patrons looking up in restrained irritation. She’d apologize if she cared about anyone other than Henry.  
  
“I’m sorry Mayor Mills, he’s been like this near since you dropped him off,” Granny begins.  
  
Henry sees his mother and lunges for her, his cries desperate and laced with ‘ _ma ma ma_.’  
  
When Regina takes him, his cries slow to whimpers, his face burrowing into her neck. He takes a deep breath and sighs, as if this is the best place he could ever be. Her heart feels too big for her chest while she holds her son close, silently proud of him for wanting only her.  
  
III.

“Henry, where is your nose?” She watches her nearly three year old point to his face and she smiles widely at him, placing a smiley faced sticker on his arm. “That’s right. Now, where is your ear?” The game goes on until his arm is covered with stickers.  
  
“Mama where mine?”  
  
Regina tilts her head, not quite understanding her son. “Where’s your what, sweetheart?”  
  
Chubby fingers come to rest on the scar above her lip. “Where mine?”  
  
She remembers the day she got that scar. She’d been trying to avoid her mother’s magic rather than face it head on. “You will never have one of these,” she promises her son. “It’s an ouch.”  
  
Henry regards her seriously at that, eyes trained on the scar. There’s silence for a few long seconds until he leans in and kisses it. “No ouch, Mama.”  
  
Unexpected tears well in her eyes, and she reaches for him, pulling him into her arms. “No more ouch,” she agrees.  
  
IV.

As she waits for Henry to come out of the school building, Regina looks around at this town she created. It’s still the same; always the same partly cloudy sky and dreary. But she has Henry, and as her first grader’s eyes land on her she watches them light up, clearly happy to see her.

Henry’s body barrels into hers, nearly knocking them both over in his excitement. “I made you something!” he exclaims, dragging her to a bench as she smiles in amusement.  
  
“What sort of something?” she asks, playing along.  
  
With determination, he unzips his backpack and pulls out something that’s awfully red, before turning it around to present to her. Regina takes what she realizes is plaster and turns it over. There’s a hand print, and Henry’s choice of words: ‘ _For Mommy._ ’  
  
With a small smile on her lips, Regina traces the curve of his palm print before looking at him. “This is my favorite thing you’ve ever made me, Henry,” she says seriously, already knowing where she’ll keep it.

“I love you,” and his words are so innocent and true, that they always make her heart beat faster.

“I love you,” she replies, and hand in hand they make their way home. 

V.

It’s chilly outside, it always gets chilly after four in the afternoon, and so both she and Henry are in their coats, Sidney across from them with a camera. A few snapshots are taken, and the newspaper writer turned amateur photographer has to replace the batteries of his camera. Regina takes the time to look at her son, bringing a hand to the top of his head. “If you keep growing, you’ll be taller than I am soon.”

Henry’s nine now, and he looks at her with a sort of squint. “I’m definitely going to be taller than you.”

She purses her lips, but there’s a small smile in her eyes.

“But I’m a lot like you,” he says quickly. “Sometimes my eyes are more brown. My hair is brown,”

Regina can’t help but think about all the ways that they’re the same, and the hundreds of ways they’re different.

“I care about people like you do.”

That makes her look down at him, her head tilting slightly. “We care about people?” 

Henry grins because he thinks she’s joking. Maybe she is. “You take care of everyone in town, and you make sure everybody has what they need. I like helping in class, and playing with everyone. I’m like you.”

She hopes he’s never like her, but she reaches out to stroke his cheek gently even as Sidney shouts that he’s ready. She stands behind her son, arm wrapped around him. She smiles, but she’s far away, thinking about his words:

_I’m like you._


End file.
